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Who is Lysander?

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Lysander

Bannerfall marks a legendary site, where New Monarchy’s Guaridans rose to deliver the final blow to the Concordat, unravelling the war effort Lysander sought to bring against the Vanguard. According to the hidden, in the wilderness beyond the City, Lysander rallies his supporters and plots his return. Some whisper of sympathizers in the Tower and hidden gifts for Guardians who honor him.

Welcome back gaurdians, today we are discussing Lysander. With the release of the Dawning, many of you would have discovered a new sparrow called Lysander’s Cry which can be obtained by collecting a new dead ghost on the crucible map bannerfall, which triggers a gift in the Tower. However, you may be less familiar with the backstory of Lysander and his departure from the Tower, hence this video.

This week has been a busy week of Destiny lore, with a lore video each explaining the new Omnigul and Taniks strikes, plus a sneak peak at the new Felwinter Comic book! If you have not seen the comic book sneak peak video, I am giving away some custom Destiny prints made by Brandon McCammey, all you have to do is leave a comment on that video and I will select the winner on Christmas eve. I will also be giving away some prints live on Twitch, if you are watching this video in the first two hours of release I am live right now.

This is myelin games and I hope you enjoy this latest Destiny Lore episode.

To understand Lysander you need to understand some background about the City, the Faction Wars and the formation of the Consensus. Following the Collapse, the Traveler was crippled and stationary over Earth with people instinctively seeking refuge below it. To my knowledge we do not really know why people thought this area was safe, but I assume because the Traveler brought so much technology and advancements during the Golden Age, that when the collapse happened and the world fell apart, people instinctively thought that being closer to the Traveler would be safer. Alternatively, it may have simply been the easiest reference point for everyone to gather at a single one location to rebuild.

Regardless to why people flocked to the crippled Traveler, with the increasing population seeking shelter a City was formed, the Last City, and the City not only housed civilians, but was also home to the newly created Guardians. Guardians helped form the first walls and defended the City from the Fallen, who sought to reclaim the Traveler.

It would seem that the instinctual nature of humanity to seek shelter below the Traveler was correct and it provided the protection they sought in the form of defensive structures and Guardians. Well, that is not quite true, as in the early days of the City, it was not safe. When you get a mass of people in one location, people from different countries, different cultures, different backgrounds there will be conflict and in the early days of the City, the Faction Wars was crippling.

The Faction Wars was very similar to the conflict that occurred between the Warlords and the Iron Lords, however the Faction wars was more civilian based and localised to the City. You will notice that the Faction leaders do not have ghosts and are not Guardians, however they could be, the Factions are in fact actually described as political factions in the Bannerfall grimoire card, they are a collection of humans, awoken, exos and/or Guardians who share a specific vision about how to save and restore humanity.

The issue was, when you get a large mass of people in one location following a globally catastrophic event, without government, rather than resolving issues in a civil fashion, conflict broke out, because no one can agree to how best recover and build humanity. And this was what the Faction Wars was about, certain individuals rose to power inside the City and attempted to convince masses of people to think in a certain way. We do not really know exactly what happened but I am assuming it violent and ugly Civil war.

Guardians were the ones to end the conflict and a somewhat government was formed, the City Consensus. Certain factions remained, however they were now to work through civil channels rather than war. The Consensus is comprised of a representative of each major faction, which currently is New Monarchy, Dead Orbit and Future War Cult and the Consensus also includes the Vanguard, Zavala, Ikora Rey and Cayde-6. The Consensus works with the Speaker to rule together. There does appear to be joint decision making between the Consensus and the Speaker, as evident in the Ghost Fragment: The City Age, which documents a meeting with the Consensus where they grant Future War Cult a seat amongst them, however they still submit their decision as a proposal to the Speaker, implying that the Speaker has the final say. The Ghost Fragment: The City Age reads,

“Let’s take it to a vote. All in favor of the ascension of the Future War Cult?” “Unanimous? Good. We’ll grant the Future War Cult access to the Tower and a seat among us. Ghost, please offer the Speaker this proposal.”

So… How does Lysander fit into all of this? Well Lysander led the faction called the Concordat. The green Concordat banners can be seen on the crucible map Bannerfall. Lysander and the Concordat wanted to see the removal of the Consensus and/or the Speaker. The Bannerfall grimoire card implies that Lysander is opposed to the Consensus, it reads

“Lysander and the Concordat mark the most recent example of a City political factions rising in opposition to the Consensus”

Whereas, the Gjallarhorn questline implies that the Concordat have issue with the Speaker, the in-game dialogue reads,

“Hmm, these are combat logs from New Monarchy’s final assault on the Concordat. Still hard to believe a faction right here in the City would try to rise against the Speaker.”

Even though it appears, that the Concordat already had a seat amongst the Consensus as indicated by the The City Age grimoire card, my impression is that the Concordat still had issue with the both the idea of Consensus and the Speaker. This in itself, is not necessarily bad, remember that New Monarchy also want to abolish the Consensus, however the way in which Lysander wants to remove the Consensus is likely an issue, his efforts are described as a crusade. A crusade, typical refers to a medieval military expedition, hence Lysander wants to remove the Consensus through force and violence, whereas New Monarchy still seeks civil avenues for the removal of the Consensus and Speaker.

The City Consensus therefore votes to remove the Concordat faction from the City, however the Consensus decides that they cannot afford to banish Guardians who have already pledged allegiance to the Concordat and rather that, those Guardians are re-assigned new factions by Zavala

The Ghost Fragment: The City Age reads,

“And so it is agreed. The Concordat shall no longer be recognized among the Consensus. We’ll begin the dismantling right away. But what of those Guardians who have pledged to them? We can’t afford any more banishments.” “I’m sure Zavala can see to their realignment.” “We’ll do our best. Lysander chose his followers wisely. It may take some time.” “Lysander will not back down. He’ll continue his crusade from wherever we stuff him.”

At this point, Future War Cult is granted a seat amongst the Consensus and the concordat removed. Although the timeline is not clear, I assume Lysander was not happy with this decision, which resulted in the battle at Bannerfall. The Concordat fought with New Monarchy at Bannerfall, New Monarchy was victorious and the Concordat fell.

The Bannerfall grimoire card reads,

“This site marks a legendary battle where New Monarchy’s Guardians rose to deliver the final blow to the Concordat, unraveling the war effort Lysander sought to bring against the Vanguard.”

I assume at this point, Lysander likely removed himself from the Tower after losing the battle at Bannerfall. His whereabouts unknown. The new Lysander’s Cry grimoire card implies that Lysander is outside of the City walls rallying support. The card reads,

“According to the Hidden, in the wilderness beyond the City, Lysander rallies his supporters and plots his return. Some whisper of sympathizers in the Tower and hidden gifts for Guardians who honor him.”

So the new sparrow we receive, is a bribe, is a form of manipulation to recruit guardians back into the Concordat, the opening sentence of the grimoire card reinforces this,

Lysander believes that he can regain favour with Guardians by understanding what we want, providing a gift, filling a need.

This has pretty big implications for the storyline of Destiny because if Lysander is rallying outside of the City walls, the City may see another Faction War. Lysander could lead an attack on the City, but this time it is not Guardian vs Fallen, it is Guardian vs Guardian. What is more concerning, is that it is likely that Lysander has supports already in the Tower, both civilians and Guardians already among us who are waiting for Lysander’s command to take the City by force and remove the Consensus and the Speaker.

Maybe our greatest concern, should not be the Cabal Empire, or Oryx’s Sisters, Savathan and Xivu Arath, or the time bending Vex or the continuation of SIVA, but rather, our fellow Guardians and citizens who we protect, those who may betray us, destroying the City from the inside out.

That concludes this latest Destiny Lore episode, if you would like to support the channel, leave the phrase, “Faction Wars II” to speculate that in Destiny 2 we will witness the violence and destruction of the Faction Wars first end. As usual, it has been pleasure, this is myelin games. Peace.